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kevin_standleeThe final day of Sasquan saw me spending even more time in Room 300B, site of the WSFS Business Meeting and the WSFS Mark Protection Committee Meeting held shortly after the BM finally adjourned.
I wish we could have made it to the end about an hour earlier, or at least that I'd packed one of my food bars. Although I'd had a good breakfast, by the time we reached that last hour, I was getting increasingly frayed around the edges.
The E Pluribus Hugo proposal was debated thoroughly before finally being approved by a vote of 186-62. At that point, one of the opponents of the proposal, who had been sitting in the front row wearing a Baen books t-shirt, stormed out of the room angrily spiking his agenda into a trash can. I regret this, inasmuch as I want everyone who attends a meeting I chair to feel that they have been treated fairly and that the process is fair even if they don't get what they want.
After considerable wrangling, including having to explain what "descending order" means, we worked out a way to use Filling Blanks on the combinations of nominations and finalist slots in the "4 & 6" proposal. To nearly everyone's amusement, when it came down to it, the original combination of 4 & 6 is what an significant majority of the people present actually wanted. We could have saved about 30 minutes of muddle had we known that up front.
The meeting attempted to adjourn sine die before the last item on the agenda was reached (Electronic Signature), which would have killed it. This is one of the few times I've seen a debatable motion to adjourn actually debated, and rejected to boot.
After disposing of the last constitutional amendment, the meeting prepared to adjourn. After I thanked everyone who participated and worked on the meeting, the meeting voted me a resolution of thanks and a standing ovation, for which I was very grateful. I made a point of crediting the late Bruce Pelz for his influence upon me. And with that, the meeting adjourned for good about 1:30 PM.
Even though the WSFS Business Meeting was over, the Business of WSFS was not. The WSFS Mark Protection Committee couldn't hold its organizational meeting until after the Business Meeting had adjourned. at 2 PM, the members of the MPC convened in the same room for a relatively short meeting. I was re-elected Chairman, Linda Deneroff was re-elected Secretary, and newly-elected member Bruce Farr was elected Treasurer, replacing outgoing member and Treasurer Scott Dennis. Scott agreed to stay on as an appointed Assistant Treasurer for a transition period. After some more organizational discussion, we agreed to put off most of our discussion to the committee's e-mail list (once I get it reorganized with the new members added and the retiring members removed), and to consider meeting at SMOFCon in Fort Worth later this year.
At 2:45, I was finally done with WSFS business. We stowed our gear in the minvan, I changed my suit jacket and collared shirt and tie for a Sasquan polo shirt, and we made a bee-line for the Exhibit Hall, where I converted Lisa and my memberships to Worldcon 75 to attending. I then cashed the last of my "groats" (vouchers good for food from the concession stands) to get a couple of hamburgers for Lisa, bratwursts for me, and beverages for both of us, after which we headed to the Closing Ceremony.
The Closing Ceremonies had Sasquan Chair Sally Whorle introducing the guests of honor for their last turn on stage, then the vice-chairs. They then presented "Hero of Sasquan" medals to members of the convention organization who went above and beyond the call of duty. And what do you know, one of the people whose names they called was me.
Here I am with my Hero of Sasquan medal. I'm very proud of it. When we went into this year's Business Meeting, while I was confident that I was the right fan for the job, I was fully aware that I could have been wrong and that things could have gone badly wrong. However, everyone did a great job and worked very hard, and while the members attending were disputatious much of the time, on the whole everyone behaved themselves under trying circumstances, and we ground our way through the agenda and reached decisions in a fair and democratic manner.
After officially declaring Sasquan to be over, Sally called up the chairs of MidAmericon II and presented them with the Gavel of WSFS. I'd sent the Gavel with Glenn Glazer after the MPC meeting. It was a near-run thing. We finished using it only about half an hour before it was needed on stage at the Closing Ceremony. Later, after the ceremony, I caught up with the MAC II team and helped them pack up the Gavel in its presentation and shipping box, and reminded them that one of the WSFS team would be calling upon them for it after their Closing Ceremony for use at the WSFS functions.
With the convention over,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scott_sanford, Lisa, and I ended up going out to dinner at Hill's Restaurant again, after the group with which we'd originally gone to dinner grew so large that we wouldn't fit into a single table at the restaurant to which we'd drifted. We had yet another nice talk with the owner, and as we left, he presented Lisa with a jar of their nice custom spice mix, which I'll be happy to be able to use. He liked having our people here, and we enjoyed eating there.
After dinner, we walked to the Worldcon ChairsParty Meet & Greet Event in the Historic Davenport. As I expected, this was the first event I'd been able to attend at the Historic Davenport since the night before Sasquan. It wasn't the distance so much (the shuttle bus service worked well for me when I did use it) but the time involved and the need for as much sleep as I could get. As it was, I was getting by with only about five hours several nights of the convention.
Sally Whorle eventually made her way to the party, which was the cue for her induction into the club.
Dave McCarty (left) presented Sally with her Former Worldcon Chair ribbon.
Here Sally shows off her very-hard-won and well-deserved ribbon.
We hung around for quite a while. The party, spread across two rooms on opposite sides of the hallway, broke up in our half about 10:30, as Lisa and I joined Sally Wohrle and Linda Deneroff for the walk back to the Doubletree and Grand Hotels.
My WSFS Work is still not done. Bruce Farr, Linda Deneroff, and I have to go over to US Bank on Monday and sign new signature cards for the WSFS MPC (Worldcon Intellectual Property, our legal entity) bank account. There's no other chance to do so; it's the only time the three of us are going to be in the same place and with a US Bank branch nearby. Fortunately, Noon isn't the 8:30 AM that our Business Meeting calls have been for, so I'm going to shortly lie down and sleep for many hours without a care, since we don't check out until Tuesday.
I wish we could have made it to the end about an hour earlier, or at least that I'd packed one of my food bars. Although I'd had a good breakfast, by the time we reached that last hour, I was getting increasingly frayed around the edges.
The E Pluribus Hugo proposal was debated thoroughly before finally being approved by a vote of 186-62. At that point, one of the opponents of the proposal, who had been sitting in the front row wearing a Baen books t-shirt, stormed out of the room angrily spiking his agenda into a trash can. I regret this, inasmuch as I want everyone who attends a meeting I chair to feel that they have been treated fairly and that the process is fair even if they don't get what they want.
After considerable wrangling, including having to explain what "descending order" means, we worked out a way to use Filling Blanks on the combinations of nominations and finalist slots in the "4 & 6" proposal. To nearly everyone's amusement, when it came down to it, the original combination of 4 & 6 is what an significant majority of the people present actually wanted. We could have saved about 30 minutes of muddle had we known that up front.
The meeting attempted to adjourn sine die before the last item on the agenda was reached (Electronic Signature), which would have killed it. This is one of the few times I've seen a debatable motion to adjourn actually debated, and rejected to boot.
After disposing of the last constitutional amendment, the meeting prepared to adjourn. After I thanked everyone who participated and worked on the meeting, the meeting voted me a resolution of thanks and a standing ovation, for which I was very grateful. I made a point of crediting the late Bruce Pelz for his influence upon me. And with that, the meeting adjourned for good about 1:30 PM.
Even though the WSFS Business Meeting was over, the Business of WSFS was not. The WSFS Mark Protection Committee couldn't hold its organizational meeting until after the Business Meeting had adjourned. at 2 PM, the members of the MPC convened in the same room for a relatively short meeting. I was re-elected Chairman, Linda Deneroff was re-elected Secretary, and newly-elected member Bruce Farr was elected Treasurer, replacing outgoing member and Treasurer Scott Dennis. Scott agreed to stay on as an appointed Assistant Treasurer for a transition period. After some more organizational discussion, we agreed to put off most of our discussion to the committee's e-mail list (once I get it reorganized with the new members added and the retiring members removed), and to consider meeting at SMOFCon in Fort Worth later this year.
At 2:45, I was finally done with WSFS business. We stowed our gear in the minvan, I changed my suit jacket and collared shirt and tie for a Sasquan polo shirt, and we made a bee-line for the Exhibit Hall, where I converted Lisa and my memberships to Worldcon 75 to attending. I then cashed the last of my "groats" (vouchers good for food from the concession stands) to get a couple of hamburgers for Lisa, bratwursts for me, and beverages for both of us, after which we headed to the Closing Ceremony.
The Closing Ceremonies had Sasquan Chair Sally Whorle introducing the guests of honor for their last turn on stage, then the vice-chairs. They then presented "Hero of Sasquan" medals to members of the convention organization who went above and beyond the call of duty. And what do you know, one of the people whose names they called was me.
Here I am with my Hero of Sasquan medal. I'm very proud of it. When we went into this year's Business Meeting, while I was confident that I was the right fan for the job, I was fully aware that I could have been wrong and that things could have gone badly wrong. However, everyone did a great job and worked very hard, and while the members attending were disputatious much of the time, on the whole everyone behaved themselves under trying circumstances, and we ground our way through the agenda and reached decisions in a fair and democratic manner.
After officially declaring Sasquan to be over, Sally called up the chairs of MidAmericon II and presented them with the Gavel of WSFS. I'd sent the Gavel with Glenn Glazer after the MPC meeting. It was a near-run thing. We finished using it only about half an hour before it was needed on stage at the Closing Ceremony. Later, after the ceremony, I caught up with the MAC II team and helped them pack up the Gavel in its presentation and shipping box, and reminded them that one of the WSFS team would be calling upon them for it after their Closing Ceremony for use at the WSFS functions.
With the convention over,
scott_sanford, Lisa, and I ended up going out to dinner at Hill's Restaurant again, after the group with which we'd originally gone to dinner grew so large that we wouldn't fit into a single table at the restaurant to which we'd drifted. We had yet another nice talk with the owner, and as we left, he presented Lisa with a jar of their nice custom spice mix, which I'll be happy to be able to use. He liked having our people here, and we enjoyed eating there.After dinner, we walked to the Worldcon Chairs
Sally Whorle eventually made her way to the party, which was the cue for her induction into the club.
Dave McCarty (left) presented Sally with her Former Worldcon Chair ribbon.
Here Sally shows off her very-hard-won and well-deserved ribbon.
We hung around for quite a while. The party, spread across two rooms on opposite sides of the hallway, broke up in our half about 10:30, as Lisa and I joined Sally Wohrle and Linda Deneroff for the walk back to the Doubletree and Grand Hotels.
My WSFS Work is still not done. Bruce Farr, Linda Deneroff, and I have to go over to US Bank on Monday and sign new signature cards for the WSFS MPC (Worldcon Intellectual Property, our legal entity) bank account. There's no other chance to do so; it's the only time the three of us are going to be in the same place and with a US Bank branch nearby. Fortunately, Noon isn't the 8:30 AM that our Business Meeting calls have been for, so I'm going to shortly lie down and sleep for many hours without a care, since we don't check out until Tuesday.
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no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 03:22 pm (UTC)(Barn is holding at Level 1. Horse's problems may turn out to be something entirely different from what we thought. This may be a good thing)
no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-24 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 05:18 am (UTC)Thank you again. I hope to see you in KC and stand you to a beverage of your choice.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 07:31 am (UTC)Hunh. I have obviously been too much influenced by Heinlein: it is many many years since I read his aside "A motion to adjourn is always in order, and may not be debated," but ever since I have taken that as gospel. Happily I am disinterested, but it's interesting none the less to learn that it ain't necessarily so.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 04:33 pm (UTC)Adjourn is usually in order at any time; however, if made when anything else is pending, it's not debatable.
There's one motion that has higher rank than Adjourn: "To Fix the Time to Which to Adjourn," which sets up a continuation of the meeting that's about to adjourn.
When made when no other business is pending, Adjourn is debatable, and can have qualifiers like "Adjourn sine die" attached to it.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-25 08:11 pm (UTC)I'll be at KC and would love to buy you a drink.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 04:34 am (UTC)My opinion: the ceremonial points where the Chair of the convention formally opens and closes the event are irrelevant. The opening used to have more of a meaning because it started the clock on the submission of new business, but since we moved the deadline to two weeks prior to the start of the convention, that went away.
The real deadline was, as I recall, 5 PM, that being when we had to be out of the room. Had we reached that point, I would have called for the meeting to adjourn (killing any unresolved business), and if the meeting refused, I would have ordered the meeting to move outside into the smoke, because we would have no longer had the right to occupy the room in which we were meeting.
As far as I can tell, this was the closest that WSFS has ever come to overrunning its function space. Programming knew this was a risk and gave us 300AB for the entire day. It also complicated the MPC meeting, per above, because the MPC can't meet until after the BM adjourns.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-27 09:56 am (UTC)